Guide théorique et pratique de l'amateur de tableaux : études sur les imitateurs et les copistes des maîtres de toutes les écoles, dont les oeuvres forment la base ordinaire des galeries
Théodore Lejeune's three-volume handbook for picture collectors, published in Paris by Gide in 1863, surveys the imitators and copyists of the old masters and reproduces the marks by which paintings were attributed. The 82 plates are engraved facsimiles of painters' signatures, initials, monograms and dates, isolated on blank ground, giving designers a stock of looping penmanship, ligatured cipher letters and hand-drawn numerals.
